Endless Lines

Description

Endless Lines is an action puzzle game designed to test your reactions and path finding skills. Points are awarded for creating paths across the game board by sliding the rows and columns of tiles, the longer the path the more points it is worth. Time is a key component of all the modes in the game, and was a core design element without it this style of game provides very little challenge.

History

Endless Lines was Matt’s first iOS game and return to solo game development after seven years in the AAA trenches. He decided to make a small game to get used to working alone, get up to speed with the platform, and get through an entire development and release cycle with iOS and the App Store as soon as possible.

The concept that became Endless Lines was developed over Christmas 2010, the core path creation mechanic came from an earlier idea for a falling blocks game. Each block had a path across it (the set of blocks is identical to that used in Endless Lines), which the player would arrange these blocks to create paths across the play area or to form loops. The control method of sliding rows & columns to create paths from a full game board, rather than directing falling blocks, came from exploring control methods for (action) puzzle games built around a touch screen interface rather than using virtual controls.

Development took five weeks with Matt doing everything except the music, which was licensed. The initial version of Endless Lines was released in August 2011. In December the Zen mode (no time limit) was replaced by the Endless mode (short start time, each block cleared adds to the remaining time), which was felt fitted the game much better. In July 2012 the entire game was given a new, cleaner look.

Features

• Fast paced gameplay - create paths against the clock.
• Multipliers and special blocks to help and hinder
• Three exciting time based game modes:
• Blitz - Score as many points as possible in 60 seconds. Multipliers and bombs will aid you in your goal.
• Sprint - How quickly can you reach your target score? Three target scores make for increasing harder games. Multipliers and bombs will help, but locks will stop you moving the row and column they are on until you remove them.
• Endless - Start with 15 seconds on the clock, each block cleared adds a small amount of time. How long can you survive and how many points can you score in this frantic game mode?